I think for me to be involved in a festival, there has to be a strong element of songwriting and musicianship.
Aaron Dessner
For me, songwriting is something like breathing: I just do it. But that doesn't mean you're fantastic.
Adam Duritz
I've always used songs and music and songwriting as a way to sort of let feelings go.
Adam Gontier
I attended a post-college program in L.A. for Music Business and Production. Took several courses involving Music Production, Arrangement, and Songwriting.
Adam Kluger
Well, our songwriting process is pretty collective.
Adam Rich
I think when we were starting out, it was more about imitating our songwriting heroes. We would try to write songs like Neil Finn, or we would try to write songs like Ray Davies, or we would try to write songs like Glenn Tilbrook.
Adam Schlesinger
I've lived through a lot of dark environments one way or another while growing up and that has influenced my songwriting.
Aimee Osbourne
It's writing songs within the structure of telling a story, so it becomes a platform for diverse songwriting, for a writing process that's broader than just figuring out a song. You're also dealing with always pushing the story forward, with casting the voices, with the orchestration, with the arrangements.
Alan Menken
With songwriting I spend a lot of time living life, accruing all these experiences, journaling, and then by the time I get to the studio I'm teeming with the drive to write.
Alanis Morissette
I like songs in all different genres and types. My production and songwriting is everything from pop rock to hip-hop and everything in between.
Alex Clare
The best songwriting comes from being as creative as you can and editing it down to the good bits, essentially.
Alex Kapranos
If anyone asks me about songwriting, I guess I'd say that you just gotta do it.
Alex Turner
We're always writing music no matter what. And we're not always acting - we have months off. But we never take a break from songwriting.
Alex Wolff
Baking is more like chemistry, following certain instructions and knowing what comes out in the end. It's almost reassuring! Songwriting is a creative process where you go into a session with nothing and can come out of it with something incredible in the end. I never feel like I'm taking a risk with baking, but always with songwriting.
Alice Merton
I started quite late. I only discovered that I could write a song when I was, like, 17... some musicians, they're starting out, writing songs when they're, like, 12, 13. I never thought I would go into songwriting when I was that young.
When I was younger, I always wanted to be either a pianist or a classical singer, and when I discovered songwriting, it was like a new portal had been opened.
It's not that I have resisted songwriting, it's just not something I felt I have had to do. I've just not woken up and thought, I must do this. But I have often heard music that I have instantly felt 'I have to sing that song'.
Alison Krauss
Bike riding is great for your thinking. I can't say I've written an entire tune while cycling, but riding has definitely inspired songwriting ideas.
Allan Holdsworth
I was in 'Jacques Brel' Off-Broadway for many years, so I've always been a singing actress, but the songwriting was a complete surprise. I had never written a song in my life. We were on the road with 'Jacques Brel' doing the national tour, and I picked up a guitar one day and I wrote a song.
Amanda McBroom
I draw the line at letting people into my songwriting cave. To me, that's where the alchemy happens and where the mystery is.
Amanda Palmer
I love songwriting, and rap is part of my songwriting, but I'm not a rapper.
Songwriting isn't always something that's directly proportionate to the experience.
I don't really know that there's any real rules for songwriting.
But if you want to be a songwriter-based musician, whether you play punk or rock or country or jazz, whatever, you have to work on your songwriting and you have to work on being able to play in front of people, I think. That performance is how you create the groundwork for a lasting career.
I have always been musically inclined, whether it's been playing the santoor from a young age or writing poetry that has now evolved into songwriting. So, I wouldn't really call it a focus shift, but just pursuing a career path I am passionate about.
Coming out of 'Wretched and Divine,' I was still wanting to explore the more theatrical elements of songwriting. That led to Andy Black.
Where I've arrived now is the product of mixing the very straight with the very exploratory; there's a fine line between the two, although it tends to be getting straighter and straighter because my songwriting is getting better.
You know, I would say that songwriting is something about the expression of the heart, the intellect and the soul.
After a casual listen, it might be easy to lump Rocky Votolato in with the downtrodden likes of Conor Oberst and Elliott Smith. But his songwriting is a bit more triumphant than theirs: Votolato would rather pull himself out of a gutter than wallow in it, focusing instead on the victory before the misery.
The personality and songwriting of Holy Ghost! trumps the originality card any day.
The Italian duo Dumbo Gets Mad specializes in psychedelics for the sober, bringing experimentation together with detailed pop songwriting.
Most songs I write are spur-of-the-moment-type things. I have to be spontaneous. If not, songwriting can bore me. There is no pre-design or idea of what I am going to do when I go into the studio. It's all like that for me. I could go in and write two or three songs in an eight-hour session. You can't over-think songs. You just can't.
I love watching movies, and I'm very inspired by movies when it comes to songwriting!
My voice is very country, and my songwriting is very country.
Linkin Park has been a band for such a long time, for me, in my eyes. I was 16 years old when I first heard them. I heard 'Hybrid Theory,' and I was floored at what I was listening to. It was angry yet melodic, it had hip-hop and it had - it was just different, good. Good songwriting.
I never judge my own songwriting. It's just my heart. What's there to judge about your own heart?
What we hear now is great-sounding records with great-sounding grooves and loops. And the sound of these records is irresistible, but the craft of songwriting is just about over. That's why, whenever I get an opportunity to do an album full of standards, I jump at it because I miss it.
Probably most successful songwriters have an innate songwriting ability.
I wanted to be part of pop culture, so I started songwriting, and I got signed to my first record deal.
I wish I had more confidence. I think that's probably my Achilles' heel. If I had more, I probably would have felt emboldened to make more interesting music earlier on, or really go for it in an artistic or songwriting sense.
The songwriting of Hall & Oates is deceptively complex. There are a number of key changes that pass you by as you're listening to the song because they're so seamless and clever.
When I listen to and play the songs from 'Narrow Stairs' now, that record feels like a record where we had established a style that arguably was more our own than it was in the beginning. Going into that record, I felt a lot more confident in my songwriting. It was a fairly prolific time for me.
The music is in the lead here, and a large part of this, I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel a closer bond with the craft of songwriting, stronger than I ever have.
I'd say, at the end of the day, you know, from a songwriting practice standpoint, you write songs to make yourself feel something true and validating, and cathartic, maybe, and then whoever responds to it is, like, out of your control.
I felt I never needed to fight for a more prominent songwriting and increased vocal role with the Cars.
It's easy for me to cry. I'm just emotionally tuned in to stuff. It probably helps with my songwriting.
The songwriting process is different on every record because you're never coming from the same place when you're writing.
I think that's always the hope - I mean, I can't speak for others, but I think other artists, no matter what type of medium they are using - whether it be from painting to acting to dancing, songwriting, or anything like that - I believe the desire is to get to the truth, and I think it's really hard to tell the truth.
What I do is I really enjoy and appreciate the challenge of songwriting and singing and performing and just being really, really grateful at all times. Also, I have no fear or problems with saying no and setting boundaries, you know, with the label, with my management.
As far as songwriting, I'm not sure if they wrote all of their own stuff, but I love the Dixie Chicks.
